Sonoma County’s congressmen say stimulus bill provides vital aid, but more will be needed

Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman hailed the approval Friday of a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill, calling it an “important step forward” that will benefit their constituents in the North Bay and along the North Coast, while saying far more spending will be needed to mend the nation’s economy.

Thompson said the bill, signed by President Trump after the House approved it on a voice vote, will “stop the bleeding” by delivering money to workers, small businesses and health care providers, which he said were his top priorities.

The cash payments - $1,200 to lower- and middle-income adults plus $500 for each child - will go much farther in many parts of the country than in the North Bay, where living costs are steep, said Thompson, a St. Helena resident.

“I think it’s a good start, but we don’t know how long (the coronavirus crisis) is going to be a problem,” he said. “A lot of folks are going to be hurt.”

Officials said some people would receive their payments within three weeks.

“Most Americans haven’t felt the depth of the economic hit,” said Huffman, a San Rafael resident.

The cash payments will provide “triage” for people for the next few weeks, he said, “but the economy is still going off the cliff.”

When the pandemic is eventually contained, Huffman said, it will likely take an additional $2 trillion to $3 trillion, including a massive infrastructure bill, to “breathe life back into the economy.”

The ultimate challenge, he said, will be to prevent what is likely to become a recession from slipping further into a repeat of the Great Depression.

Both congressmen faulted the bill, crafted through bipartisan negotiations, for providing just $150 billion in a state and local government relief fund, from which California is expected to get about $15.3 ?billion.

State and local government budgets are “absolutely going to crash” due to dwindling tax revenue, Huffman said.

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, which operates the North Bay commuter rail line, depends on ridership fares and sale taxes that are “both dead right now” because of the stay-at-home orders and business closures, he said.

The two Democrats also said the measure was a big improvement over the bill that emerged from the Republican-?controlled Senate with what amounted to a $500 billion “slush fund” that Trump could award to corporations as he pleased.

On the plus side, Thompson said the bill will give communities in his district “the assistance they need right away,” including a “massive infusion of support” for hospitals, a strong emergency unemployment program and grants and loans to sustain small businesses.

Huffman said the bill would provide “meaningful relief” for the needs of his North Coast district, including rural health care, broadband expansion and support for the fishing industry, Native American tribes, schools and social services.

Huffman accused Trump of continuing “to fiddle while Rome burns” by trying to “gloss over what we are going through.”

The pandemic’s impact is “reaching into every part of the economy,” Huffman said. “We have never seen an entire economy just go right over Niagara Falls in a period of days.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.